Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Joseph Pearce – died 1917, aged 79 years Joseph Pearce was born in 1838 in Berkhamsted, the son of William Pearce and his wife Etty (nee Loader), who had married in 1835.  He had an older brother James and was followed by younger brother George (b. 1840). We find the family in the 1841 Census living in the High Street, where William gives his profession as a ‘Sawyer’.  This was hard physical work and mainly involved sawing tree trunks into planks, working either in a Saw Mill or over a Saw Pit (a hole in the ground which enabled a two-man saw to be used by one man above and the other actually in the pit – probably covered in sawdust!) In 1851 the family are still in the High Street, but elder brother James, now aged 15, has followed his father and is also working as a sawyer. Joseph and his younger brother  George - now 13 and 11- have been joined by younger sisters Anne (9) and Sarah (6). The younger four children are all attending the local school. By 1861 the family are living at the Pightle in Berkhamsted. (This is an old local name meaning a small enclosure or close and was latterly named Highfield Close, though there was a house just round the corner in the High Street called The Pightle House). There are now two more daughters, Elizabeth (born in 1852 – now 9) and  Emma (born in 1856 – now 5).  Joseph is still at home, though is 23 and working as a sawyer like his father. James has now married and he and his wife have two little boys, Walter aged 2 and Fred, newly born.  They are living in Bridge Street, Berkhampsted, where his younger brother George – now 21 and also a sawyer – is lodging with him. In 1862 Joseph marries Mary Ann Cave, who was born in Stony Stratford, (Bucks) but had moved to Berkhamsted with her family. By 1871, Joseph and Mary Ann were living in George Street.  Joseph, still a sawyer, is now 33, and Mary Ann is 32.  They have two young sons – Arthur aged 8 and Herbert Archibald (known in the family as Archie) who had been born that year. By the time of the 1881 Census Joseph and Mary Ann are living with their two sons – Arthur aged 18 and listed as a clerk and Archie, now 10 and at school – at the Rose and Crown in the High Street at Northchurch. Joseph,  43 years old, is still listing himself as a sawyer but seems to be in the process of changing his career path? By 1891 he  is still at the Rose and Crown with Mary Ann  but is listed as a publican – we can maybe assume that he felt he was getting too old for the physical work of a sawyer?   Arthur had left home but Archie was still with his parents, now aged 20, and listing his trade as a coach builder’s apprentice. Archie sadly died in 1893, which must have hit both parents very hard. By the time of the 1901 Census  they were still running the Rose and Crown, Joseph was now 63 and Mary Ann 62.  In 1905, an article in the Watford Observer on 11th November tells us that at the Petty Sessions the License of The Rose and Crown, Gossoms End, Northchurch was transferred from Joseph Pearce to Frederick George Baker. The 1911 Census finds Joseph and Mary Ann (now aged 73 and 72) living at 6 Ravens Lane, Berkhamsted – they had been married for 49 years,  celebrating their Golden Wedding the following year!!   Their son Arthur was living in Chapel Street, Berkhamsted with his wife Louisa and young son Sidney, aged 11.  After a long and eventful life, they both passed away in the summer of 1917 and were buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery, where they rest together!